Just for Fun

I was thinking about this song last night... no particular reason... just for fun...



Anyway, yesterday was busy. Sarah was coaching all day so I watched the kids. They were good, but it's just a long day.

I did my first trainer "power" test after the kids went to bed. I wasn't expecting too much; I just didn't feel that energetic. As it turned out, I ended up putting out some decent numbers.

My 5 minute test felt terrible; no surprise for early February. I still put up a slightly better number than I did for my first test early last year (early March). Last year I'd been doing more high-intensity training, so I was pretty happy to be ahead there.

My 20 minute test didn't feel as bad as I expected. I ended up also being a good bit ahead of where I was last March; in fact, it was my best-ever early season test! So, it seems like my training is off to a good start.

Back at it!

Well, I never ended up getting really sick, but I was sick enough that I didn't do any riding or other training. I finally got feeling good enough to get back at it on Sunday. So, I'm back to my regular riding and training schedule. Not really too much else going on...

Wobble

Well, both kids were sick all weekend with nasty colds that have continued into the week. They both look so pitiful. Sarah seems to be feeling well so far, but I'm kind of marginal. I really expected to wake up sick this morning, but I got a lot of sleep last night, and so far, I seem to be doing OK. Still not great, but not really sick either.

Over the past several weeks I've made a pretty serious effort to clean up my diet and go a little more strictly Paleo. One of the big changes I've made has been to cut back a bit on coffee. It's surprising, just generally, how much better I feel. I think it's probably also helping me fight off this cold.

On Monday, I repeated my FMS test and did my first strength test of the year (I think I will do my first on-bike test in another week or two). After almost a month of training, I found that I made some good gains on my FMS movements. I passed the seated rotation this time without much problem, but I still felt like I was kind of marginal on the in-line lunge and hurdle step. My body is just not in perfect balance during those movements.

As for the strength test, nothing too interesting, except that I was a little surprised that I hadn't lost much ground from where I finished last year. I had pretty much stopped any kind of strength workouts during 'cross season.

Too Cold, Too Windy

Finally, Friday night, we got enough snow to ski on... just barely. I went to the hiking trails at Highland Rec Saturday at about noon, and was surprised to see only one other car there. As I was getting my stuff together, a couple skiers came up and gave me the lowdown on the ski conditions. Sure enough, they said there was just enough snow to ski on.

So, off I went. It looked like they were the only ones who'd been out skiing that day, since their tracks weren't too deep. Once I got to the turn-off for the blue loop, there were no tracks to follow. The weather was nearly perfect, kind of cold but sunny. The snow seemed reasonably fast. I ended up skiing two loops, which I've not done before out there. By the time I was finishing up, there were more skiers, but the ski conditions were getting worse... just not enough snow out there.

I planned to ride outside today. The weather report said that the sun would be out this afternoon. I went out to Stony Creek to ride on the park road even though it was still pretty cloudy and cold. The sun never did come out, so it was really cold and windy around the lake there. The roads weren't quite as clear as I'd hoped either. Anyway, I decided to call it good after riding one loop; I finished my ride at home on the trainer.

Still, it was a pretty good weekend. I definitely feel ahead of where I was at this time last year. Of course, last January I was rebuilding from a lower level, since I'd lost a lot of fitness with my knee injury at the end of 2010. Anyway, so far, so good.

More Winter Riding

One of the things I wanted to try to do this Winter was to ride outside a little more. Certainly, the mild Winter so far has helped.

For last weekend though, we had more typical Winter weather. There was a little snow on the ground (still not enough for XC skiing) and temps were in the mid-20's. I loaded up my singlespeed mountain bike and hit one of the easier trails in our area, Bald Mountain. Even with regular (not studded) tires, traction was pretty good, but my gearing was too hard. I'd like to blame the extra resistance of the snow, but it probably had more to do with my fitness.

It kind of took a long time for me to get feeling good riding, maybe half an hour or so. But once I did, I had a pretty fun ride. Still, I think I will try a slightly easier gear for my next Winter ride.

Light News Day...

I'd like to try to do a little better job with my blogging, but there just isn't a lot going on this time of year. I've mostly been doing some strength training, easy bike rides and a little cross-training. We've had some good weather, reasonably warm and no snow, but it gets dark so early that it's tough to get a ride in outside after work. Supposedly we'll get some snow soon; I'm hoping we get enough that I can do some XC skiing.

Cora is off to Disneyworld for an extended weekend with my in-laws. Hopefully she has fun and doesn't get too homesick (and hopefully Sarah and I do OK!). It will be strange to have her gone for so long.

Singlespeed Ride to Milford

I ended up taking almost a three hour ride yesterday on my singlespeed mountain bike with a couple other guys. I rode to the start of the ride, near Pontiac Lake, then we rode out to Milford and back. It was a pretty relaxed-pace ride, except when we had to work a little up some hills. The weather was perfect for January and the dirt roads were in good shape.

I hadn't really intended to ride that long, but it doesn't seem to have done any harm. My legs were a bit tired for the rest of the day, but that's all. I was going to ride today, but I decided to take it off given my ride yesterday.

Back to Training

I got back to doing some strength training this week. I'd cut it way back during 'cross season, and then stopped during my December break. I got started by repeating my FMS. It was a little disappointing; I ended up failing three of the screening patterns! I think I failed two of them because of a loss of general core strength / stability. I expect after a couple weeks of training those will come back without any specific work.

The last pattern (the seated rotation) is one that I have always struggled with, and it will probably take some specific work to get back to where I can pass it.

Anyway, it's been fun to get back to "training". I can already feel my body getting a little bit stronger, which is always good. The weather has been nice enough that I've been able to ride outside a little too, which is pretty unusual for this time of year. Unfortunately, there's not enough snow to ski on around here! I'd really been looking forward to cross-country skiing this winter.

2011 Highlight Film

Sarah and I were talking about how quickly 2011 has gone by last night. She asked what my highlights were. I joked that I would need a highlight film to cover it all. Then I really started thinking about it, and I probably really would! I could probably easily come up with at least 50 highlights for the year: great bike rides, cool moments with the kids, accomplishments at work, fun trips... I could go on for a long time...

Thinking back about all the things I've done does sort of answer the question about why the year has gone by so fast. I wouldn't trade it for something else though. Hopefully it's a sign of life well-lived.

I'm looking forward to next year too. I'm not sure how, but I think it will be even better!

Highland Snow Ride

So, back to training, more-or-less. I'd planned to start easing back into riding a couple weeks ago, but things were just too busy for me to make time for it (in December anyway).

Yesterday, I was down and out with the stomach bug that has been going around our family, but today I felt normal again. So, I dusted off my singlespeed (with nice wide tires) and took it out to Highland for a little ride through the snow.

We don't have a whole lot of snow, and, on the trail, it was pretty crunchy, so I really never had much trouble with traction. What I did have trouble with was getting up all those steep little hills! My gearing was way too hard... the crunchy snow made it worse, but I probably would have had some trouble even in the summer. I ended up walking... a lot!

Anyway, I still had fun. I worked hard enough that I stayed reasonably warm, and the downhills were fun. It was good to get out and ride for a while.

Stony Creek - Not Racing

I found some old posts that I'd written but never posted. I'll do something more current soon...

The Stony Creek cyclocross race was this past weekend. Temperatures were reasonably warm, almost 60F, but the wind was blowing so hard off of the lake that it still felt cold.

I knew once I started warming up that I was in for a long day. My legs felt dead any time I put in a hard effort. I'd been fighting a cold off all week, but I rode a little on Friday and Saturday and felt OK, so I thought I would be OK for the race. Apparently not.

It was really too bad, with Iceman being over and the USGP in Louisville this weekend, the turnout for the race was light. We only had 20 racers start (compared to the 40-50 we had in Ann Arbor). If not for the wind, the course probably would have suited me too. I thought I had a decent shot at the podium. As for the wind, it was brutal. Even going slightly downhill, you really had to grind it out just to push through the wind.

Anyway, as for the race, I lined up in the front row and got an OK start. I was in the front group of 5 or so but not on the front in the wind. It didn't last long though. I slipped back several spots by the end of the first lap and then a few more on subsequent laps. My legs felt terrible the whole time and it hardly seemed like I was really "racing".

Once again the course went along the beach. In my warmup, I thought the beach was going to be partially rideable, but it got churned up a lot in the C race and then I decided it probably wasn't. There were a couple guys riding it during the race, but I didn't attempt it. It seemed like I lost a lot of ground every lap on the beach, even against guys that were also running the whole thing. I'm not sure what to make of that.

Anyway, I ended up finishing 9th, a result I'd normally be reasonably happy with, but I'd expected a lot more. That's racing I guess. Two more races to go this year. Hopefully I can get feeling better and have some good rides.

Epic

For most of the summer I'd been thinking about a new mountain bike. After the Big-M race, I decided that I probably would have been faster on a 29er. Somewhere else, I read the comment that if you're still riding a 26" hardtail, you're probably at a disadvantage compared to a 29er or 26" full-suspension bike.

So, this Fall, I started shopping around, and I eventually decided to get a Specialized Epic 29er. I had Kinetic Systems build it from the frame up, so I could get what I wanted. I didn't really like the standard Specialized 29er builds. It took a little while, but I finally picked it up last Friday.



I've only ridden it once so far, but it's a really nice bike. I think I'm going to like it, and that it will eventually help go a little faster.

A few of impressions:
- I don't seem to have the suspension set up quite right. It seemed like the fork was diving too much. Maybe the fork is too soft, or maybe the rear is rebounding too fast? I think it will take some experimentation.

- The Brain seems to do what it's supposed to. When I was sitting and pedaling, I couldn't feel anything moving. But going downhills, off drops, etc, I could feel the suspension working.

- The rear suspension wasn't quite what I expected; granted, it may not be set up correctly yet. At times, it seemed more harsh than I expected. On the other hand, landing from drops was super soft, so that was cool. I also must have bottomed it out at least once, but I didn't feel it.



- This bike has XT hydraulic brakes (with heat sinks on the pads, hah!). They're really nice. Good power and good modulation.



- As for the 29er hype, I did feel like the bike kept its momentum over rough terrain faster. There's a little rock garden at Pontiac Lake, and this bike definitely rolled through it faster than my old one. For some reason, technical climbing also seemed better.

- More 29er stuff: the bike definitely handles differently than my 26" wheel bike. I'm going to have to relearn what steering / leaning inputs I need to make to get the bike to turn the way I want. I didn't feel confident turning at higher speeds. I think that's just going to be a matter of getting ride time on it though.

It will be fun to dial the bike in and get more confident on it!

Iceman

Better late than never...

Pretty much ever since I started riding and racing mountain bikes, I've heard about Iceman. Over the years, people kept asking if I'd done it, and then were surprised that I hadn't. So, this year, I decided that I would give it a shot, if, for no other reason, than to say that I'd done it.
First challenge, get in to the race. So, back in March, I dutifully noted the registration opening time, refreshed my browser like crazy, dealt with the inevitable server crash, and eventually got in. Then, wait until November...

Sarah and I left for Traverse City on Friday, leaving the kids with Grandma. I did a little "opener" workout on the trainer Friday morning. It was kind of an experiment, after I noted how much better I raced Sunday than Saturday at Vet's Park.

I knew that the race was big, and that there would be a lot of racers, but it wasn't until we went to pick up the race packet that it really sunk in. We got to the hotel around 3pm (packet pickup was open from noon until 9pm), and I didn't expect that there would be too many people there. Wrong! The parking lot was packed; almost all the cars had bikes hanging off of them. We were lucky to get a spot.

At dinner that night, the restaurant was busy, full of bike-racer-looking types. Same story at breakfast the next morning. Cars driving around Traverse City had bikes, most with number plates for the race. Like some kind of parallel universe where everyone is a bike racer. Crazy...



Since I hadn't done the race before, I was seeded in Wave 21, starting almost an hour or so after many of my peers. I really had no expectations for the race; just try to have a good ride and pass as many people as I could. I decided that I should get a head start by lining up at the front of my wave. The guys at the line next to me were pretty nice. One told me not to get too carried away near the finish, when it seems like you're close but you still have another mile or two to go. The other guy next to me was from Tennessee; he was disappointed that it was colder and snowing. I told him that racing in the cold and snow wasn't as much fun as it sounded.



At the gun, a group of 5-10 of us went off the front. I tucked into the draft for a little while, but eventually the guy in front (one of the few I saw on a 'cross bike) didn't want to pull any more and started slowing down, so I led our wave onto the dirt. Having never raced or ridden the course, I was a little nervous about being first, but the course was well-marked. After a couple minutes of me on the front, a few other guys came around and took the lead. After a couple miles, we started running into the slower people from the wave in front of us, and then I sort of lost track of who started with me.

The first part of the race was pretty flat and fast. I was able to pass a lot of people on the two-track, and even some on the wider singletrack. I did get stuck behind people on most of the narrow singletrack, but I just viewed those as rest breaks. I was a little surprised at how relaxed everyone was about the whole passing thing. I don't usually find people to be rude in normal XC races, but there is definitely a little more tension / intensity that just wasn't there in this race. Maybe it had to do with starting so far back.

Anyway, I felt like I was flying through the first half to 2/3rds of the race. I thought I stood a good chance of breaking two hours (I had thought I might finish around 2:15). Then we started hitting the hills. The last bit of the race was quite hilly, and they eventually knocked some of the snap out of me. So, I lost some pace, and finished in 2:05. Still, quite a bit better than I thought I would do.

The finish line was pretty crazy. Again, I somehow underestimated the number of people that would be there. Sarah also underestimated how long it would take her to get there, so she missed my finish (of course, I also told her I'd be finishing about 10 minutes later than I did). It took us a while to find each other too.

Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty fun race and fun weekend, so I think I'll probably be back next year. It was also most likely my last race on my Yeti... more on that later...

Fighting Off a Bug

I've been fighting off a bug since I've gotten back from Iceman. Sarah and the kids seem a little sick too. Hopefully I'll be feeling good enough to race this weekend, although I doubt I'll go well now.

I also had to "hide" our leftover Halloween candy in the freezer in the garage this week. That should keep me out of it until the season is over...

Vet's Park 2011

So, Veteran's Park, 2011... I wasn't really sure what to expect for this race. In past years, I've liked the courses there and have done reasonably well. This year, I've gotten it in my head that I'm a bit better on courses where I can settle into a steady rhythm, but I know Vet's Park is usually not like that. I'm really trying to fight that type of thinking though, it can be self-defeating when you have to race at a course that you've decided doesn't suit you.

Anyway, so the course on Saturday was pretty tough. There was a lot of climbing and not too many places to get into a good rhythm or get a little rest. My legs never felt particularly good, but they didn't feel bad either.

I got to the line a little later than I would have liked and ended up starting in the 4th row. I didn't have a good start anyway; it just seemed like I couldn't get going relative to everyone else. I then compounded my bad start at the steep switchback climb. I knew I could climb it, but a lot of people were running it, and those that were riding were weaving everywhere. I got chopped and had to get off and run... more lost time. It seemed like I was also a little impatient, I kept getting too close to the guys in front of me and rubbing wheels. Usually, it wasn't a problem, but at least once, my wheel got turned when I did that and it cost me some time.

All in all on Saturday, it just seemed like I didn't have the legs and I made lots of little mistakes that cost me time. I wasn't too happy with my 13th place (out of about 40).

Sunday was a different story though. I don't know if it was because my family came to the race, or that I'd opened up my legs by riding on Saturday or what, but I knew I was going to ride well as soon as I started warming up. The course was a little faster, less climbing anyway, but most of the climbs and corners were muddy. I ended up switching from my Grifos to my Fangos during my warmup, thinking that the Fangos would give me better grip on some of the off-camber sections.

I lined up in the third row, but this time, I had a great start. The field sort of folded into the center of the course at the start, so I had a clear lane to go to the front. I was in the top 5-10 by the first corner and started working my up. I was aware that I was probably going too hard, but I felt so good that I thought I shouldn't slow down. When we hit the first long climb, some of the other guys bobbled in the mud; I didn't and I found myself in 2nd place. I knew the 1st place guy was probably going much too fast for me, so I didn't attempt to catch him.

I knew at least a few guys would be coming back around me, and they gradually did. Still, I rode a good chunk of the race in about 5th place. For the most part, I didn't have too much trouble with the mud, and I thought it made the course pretty fun to ride. I did make one consistent mistake though, I took much too long getting going again after the runup. It was mostly a technique problem where I wasn't getting on my bike high enough on the course; it cost me some time on every lap.

In the later laps, I started to fade a little, but so did some of the other guys. I'd just worked my way back up to the 8th place guy with two laps to go when I slid out on an off-camber corner and crashed. It really surprised me, since I hadn't had any indication of trouble on the corner the whole race. Anyway, it took me a while to get back on my pace after that and another rider went around me.

So, I ended up finishing 10th out of 45, but I was really happy with how I rode. My legs felt good and I made fewer mistakes. I feel like I can probably still sneak onto the podium (top 5) this year. To do it though, I will need to ride pretty flawlessly from a technical standpoint. I don't think I'm fit enough compared to the top guys to make up for very many mistakes. We'll see...

Falling Off Again?

I'm way behind on my blogging... I started this post a couple weeks ago. Then I'll write about Vet's Park, then Iceman...

I'm a little worried that I'm falling off again, like I did in 2009. Once again, my first couple 'cross races went well, but the last one didn't, and I really haven't felt good riding lately. I think maybe I've got it figured out this time...

First, I've definitely been under too much stress, both at work and home. I think I'm doing a good job trying to manage it, but it does have a big impact on training and recovery.

Second, I think I've kind of reached a point of "staleness" from too much anaerobic training. I've been reading some stuff about Arthur Lydiard lately. Really, his coaching philosophies aren't so different than others I've read, but he makes a point that you reach your max anaerobic potential after about 4 weeks of hard anaerobic training. If you continue to perform a high volume of anaerobic training beyond that time, you actually start to get worse (instead you should move into a lower-volume sharpening / peaking phase of training). He also comments that most athletes know when they've had enough heavy anaerobic training.

So, I think that's where I am. I probably should have backed off from the higher volume anaerobic stuff a couple weeks ago, particularly in light of my off-bike stress. I eventually recognized the need to rest in 2009 also, but it was way too late. I think I was also doing the wrong kind of workouts when I was riding in 2009. So, I'll try to rest a bit more and keep the workouts hard but brief, and see if I can regain some form for the end of the season.

Linden CX

Last weekend's cyclocross race in Linden was preceded by a super-stressful week at work. Sarah also left for Florida on Saturday morning, so I was watching both kids plus our dog, plus my in-laws' 3 dogs! We got a baby-sitter for the race, but still, it was kind of a crazy weekend.

My plan was to train through this race. So, my legs were already a little cooked before I started Sunday. The course had a little bit of everything: bumpy flat fields, fast "technical" sections, slow technical sections, and a few hills. It was fun though.

I got to the start of the "B" race early this week, so I got a second-row start, basically top 10. I didn't feel so hot at the start and got passed by more guys than I would have liked.

My performance seemed to vary with the terrain. When it was fast and flat, even in the wooded section, I felt like I was riding pretty well. In the tighter wooded section, I really struggled though. I had trouble getting around the tight 180's, and it seemed like I didn't accelerate out of the corners fast enough. On the 3rd lap, I also crashed (and dropped my chain) coming out of one of those corners. I also felt a little slow climbing all the hills.

All in all, it wasn't such a great performance.

After a little reflection, I decided to go ahead and also do the Masters 35+ race. My idea was to get a little more hard riding in and at least figure out what I was doing wrong in the wooded 180 section.

The field was much smaller, and the start was a little slower than the B race. I didn't feel too bad for the first couple laps, but I did crash pretty hard in the wooded section. I figured out part of what I was doing wrong in the tight 180's; basically I needed to put a little more weight on the front end of the bike.

After a few laps, I started to feel pretty bad. I'd figured out what I wanted to figure out, so I decided to call it a day.


So, while my race results weren't stellar, it was a useful race day for me. I figured out my handling problem, and, after some mental review, figured out some other places where I was consistently losing time.

Munson CX

It's nice to be racing. I haven't had any big injuries this year (knock on wood), my fitness is coming around. Life is good...

I was a little worried about how the race would go this weekend. I took Sarah to the Toby Keith concert on Friday night for her birthday. It was outside, in the cold and rain. We brought a tarp and some blankets, so we stayed reasonably warm and dry. I thought I might end up getting sick from being out there like that, but I didn't.

I got to the race plenty early on Saturday and got in a few warmup laps in the daylight. I tried to pay particular attention to any bumps and dips, since, once it got dark, I knew I wouldn't be able to see them. (As it was, there was one rough section that I didn't note, and it bucked me around for the first few laps until I finally remembered it.) The course was pretty typical for a night race at Munson. Just one time riding up the hill, one time running, and the rest was all flat.

One of the things I'd wanted to work on this year was warming up thoroughly before cold races. Since there aren't great roads to warm up on around the park (especially in the dark!), I brought my trainer. I really liked how well it worked! My legs felt really loose and ready to go before the race.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake and misjudged how early I needed to get to the line to get a decent starting spot. I ended up getting there with over 5 minutes to go, but most of the field was already lined up. I started right near the back. Doh!

At the whistle, I got a good start, and I started moving up immediately. Racing with the huge fields in Baltimore definitely helped me out. I was very comfortable jumping into whatever gaps opened and working my way up. After the second lap, I think I'd passed the majority of people I was going to easily pass. The rest would require some more serious work!

I felt pretty solid for most of the race. It seemed like I was just crushing people riding up the hill, but on the flatter sections (which was most of the course), I had more trouble. Still, much like at Plaster Creek, I seemed to be able to find a gear that I could "get on top of" in the flat parts. It just wasn't quite enough to get up to the leaders.

I had a good battle with a couple Cycletherapy guys near the end. We eventually shed one, but I ended up losing a sprint to the other. He set it up by beating me up the run-up (I didn't feel good running the whole race). I knew you probably had to be in front through the last few corners to win a sprint finish, since the finishing straight was pretty short. I gave the sprint a good go, but I wasn't able to go around.

I ended up finishing 7th out of a field of almost 40 guys. I think I probably could have been top 5 if I'd started near the front. I'll get to the line earlier next time...

Charm City CX

I had originally planned for my out-of-state cyclocross trip to be to the Madison USGP. I made a late decision to switch the trip to Charm City Cross in Baltimore, so I could also visit my brother.

In the week leading up to the race, I picked up a cold from the kids. I went to bed super-early every night, and by the time I left on Friday, I felt more-or-less OK.

I drove straight to the park on Friday, thinking that, by Friday evening, surely the course would be set up. I was also thinking it would be nice to spin the legs a bit after the long car ride. I found the park just fine, but I didn't see any course tape, barriers, etc. What's going on? Finally, I got out of the car and started walking around; that's when I spotted an orange spray-painted line winding around the park. After following it for a while, I was pretty sure that this was the course. It did feel good to ride a bit, but with only a general idea of where the course would go, the pre-ride wasn't so useful. I still can't believe they set the whole thing up before the first race the next morning.

I decided to do the 2/3/4 ("B") race for this weekend. It turns out that this was the last race of the day. By the time I rode the course on Saturday, almost every corner was muddy/slick from so many riders going over it. There were also a few deep, sticky mud pits. The day was cold, overcast and spitting rain.

I was called up 80th in a field of ~125 riders. The first few laps were crazy with that many guys! We went through almost every corner 3-4 wide. If you let up just a little, a couple guys would get by. It seemed like I was faster than many of the guys around me at the start, but I had a lot of trouble making passes. I was a little too tentative and just not used to so many people.

Once things spread out a little, I found that I was definitely handling my bike better than the guys around me. In particular, I was really happy with how I rode the muddy corners. I was a little surprised at how well I did, since we don't typically get conditions like that in Michigan. Unfortuntely, from a fitness standpoint, I just didn't measure up. I don't know if it was from my cold, the car ride, or that the other guys were just that fast, but any time we got to a spot where I just needed to put the power down, I struggled. I ended up finishing where I started, 80th. Kind of a disappointing result.



For day 2, I vowed to be more aggressive at the start. I got a similar call-up (84th), so I figured I'd get in plenty of passing practice. I also thought I might physically feel a little better. The course on the second day was drier and the corners were more open; basically, faster conditions. The weather was also much nicer.

There was one corner where some hecklers had camped out. They had a little dry-erase board sign that they used to good effect. During the women's pro race, the sign read "Single Men ->". During the warmup for my race, they'd written "Attack the warmup!". After a couple laps, they started referring to me as "Sea Bass". I thought it was cool...

It seemed like the field strung out faster on the second day. There was really only a lot of traffic on the first lap. I did physically feel better, but I made some bad mistakes. On the first lap, I didn't realize we'd be going through some sandpits, so that surprised me. (They removed the sandpits for the Pro races, and, on the first day, they didn't put them back in for our race. On the second day, they did!) I rode through the first stretch of sand, then decided to run the second stretch. I had an awkward dismount, lost my balance and stepped on the spokes of my front wheel. Doh! I didn't mess it up to the point where it was rubbing, so I just kept going.

At the start of the third lap, I made my final mistake. The barriers were set up on a slight downhill, and the ground in front was a little bumpy. Should have been no big deal; it's almost exactly how I set up my practice barrier at home. I coasted in, stepped through, then couldn't get my left foot out of the pedal. Crash! I hit the barrier with my lower legs and my bike. Somehow I didn't flip over it. The barrier gave a little, but it still REALLY hurt! My legs were scraped, but they otherwise looked OK, so I got back on my bike. It was incredibly painful to pedal, but I thought if I kept going it might start feeling better. It didn't, and I couldn't pedal hard at all, so after a minute or two, I stopped. DNF...



After the race, I could assess the damage a little better. My left knee was pretty badly bruised, and I was scraped and bruised just below my right knee. My front wheel was out of true, but my bike was otherwise OK. I was pretty worried at first that I'd just ended my season with a bone bruise like I did last year, but, by that Wednesday, I was back on the bike and riding hard with no problem.

So, even though my race results were pretty rough, I still had a good time. It was really cool to be in such a big race and with such a quality field. I'm thinking I will go back next year. Maybe try to step up my game a little and get a better result.

Counting to 8

I made the trip over to Plaster Creek Park in Grand Rapids on Sunday to contest the first Kisscross race of the season. Particularly after my less-than-stellar practice race at the 'cross clinic on Saturday, I wanted to get one more training race in before I head to Baltimore next weekend for Charm City 'Cross.

The course was pretty fast and flowy. There were a few fun "roller coaster" turns where you just let the hill slow you down on the way up, and then you turn and bomb down the other side. There were also a few Kisscross oddities: a big spiral and a set of triple barriers. All said, it was a really fun course.

We had a pretty big "B" field: 46 racers in the B field, and 37 in the B-masters. They announced that we would be doing 8 laps ("count your own laps"... remember this), and then we were off.

I held back just a little at the start; I think going out too hard was part of my problem on Saturday. I ended up near the front, but this let John Osgood (one of the few racers I knew) build a decent gap. From then on, I rode pretty steady and picked riders off the whole way. I ended up riding most of the race with fellow Rhino Dan Gosen. At about the halfway point, we started lapping riders, and then it got really difficult to tell who you were racing.

For this race, I really wanted to focus on taking correct lines and being in the correct gear. The gearing thing is something I'm not always disciplined about. For the most part, it was fine, but there was a long 180 degree corner through a baseball infield that I really struggled with. I think I was making two mistakes: going in too fast, and taking a wider line, where the sand/gravel was a little deeper. Dan, and others, always seemed to erase whatever gap I'd built up in that one corner.

About halfway through (what I thought) was our second-to-last lap, I started looking around to see the gap to Osgood and who was in between us, to plan a bit for that last lap. The gap to John was pretty big, and I wasn't sure if the few guys between us were on the lead lap or not, but I didn't think so.

So, as we're riding through the start / finish line, Dan calls out "We're done". I said, "No, we have one more to go." I was so sure, and I still felt pretty good, so I could have definitely done another lap. I must have been convincing, because Dan and I kept going. (In hindsight, I remember seeing a few tags on the spindle already, but no one was standing there.) We went through a couple corners, then I saw John, sitting up and pedaling easy. Doh! Dan and I scooted back to the spindle (where there was now a line) and put our tags on. We crossed the line 2nd and 3rd, but were scored as 10th and 11th. Sorry Dan. (We did get a mention on the results page... "a few people had trouble counting laps...")

Photo of me...

Anyway, the race was a lot of fun and I have some confidence now heading into Charm City and the Tailwind series.